Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists' Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Ouma Oluga has criticized Health CS Cleopa Mailu over the suspension of new rules issued by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) regarding outpatient services.
Through a post on his Twitter handle, Oluga accused CS Mailu of making the decision unilaterally and termed Dr Mailu's decision "as bad as the NHIF’s four visit rule".
Dr Oluga further accused the government of failing to involve other stakeholders in the health center when making decisions.
"That the CS can unilaterally make a decision on NHIF is as an accountability problem as the four visits per year directive," Oluga stated.
[caption caption="KMPDU Secretary General Ouma Oluga"]
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"The reason why there is a widespread lack of acceptance of the NHIF decision is [because there is] lack of stakeholders’ consultations, " he added.
This comes after Mailu suspended with immediate effect the decision by NHIF to limit outpatient visits to only four per year.
The CS stated that patients should continue enjoying NHIF services without limits.
The suspended NHIF rules forced families under the national scheme to pay for all outpatient services in cash once they exceeded four visits per card.
"This meant that the larger the family, the fewer services would be available for each member of the family. This is one way of dealing with fraud since a member would have control over the number of visits, which are fixed-for-service, meaning NHIF would only pay a facility the actual cost incurred and not the initial Sh1,500 cap for all facilities per year,” NHIF Chief Executive Geoffrey Mwangi argued.
[caption caption="NHIF CEO Geoffrey Mwangi"]
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